It is so nice to see that the search for "self actualization" and "self esteem" has brought us to such a happy and healthy situation in society. Excuse me . . . I am being facetious. Actually, the "selfism" movement (which has infected almost every aspect of modern society) has brought us to a long list of unexpected experiences (at least, unexpected by those who had no biblical knowledge--more on this below). Let me name just a few of these results: increased suicide numbers, school shootings, massive divorce rate, children on drugs (legal and illegal ones), and widespread decreased spiritual commitment.
Now, some of you may be saying, "how can you make the correlation?" No, I do not believe that I have perfect knowledge of historical connections between events; only God can know that for sure. Yet, we do have a wealth of information in Scripture which tells us that the more we seek self first, the more we will end up with foolishness, misery, and spiritual compromise. Once those things set in, we find ourselves falling into the state which the word of God says is deadly. The book of Proverbs says that whoever hates God and His wisdom "loves death".
It may seem as though I am harping on the pursuit of self a lot lately, yet it has touched so many things in the world that it is impossible to avoid it. For many the problem is not evident, though, because it is has become hard for them to see the "forest through the trees". One outcome of this degeneration that we are experiencing is hard to describe with polite terms. Let me try: we are finding it increasingly difficult to process basic information without becoming confused to the point of being unable to determine the accuracy of proper communication. It may be easier to be more direct: we are ignorant. Simple points of logic and proper argumentation are foreign to large numbers of people in modern society.
People just do not want to think. While claiming to be an "individual" many in society just want to be told what to believe. It is one of those oddities of living in a fallen world, but the more we pursue the glorification of self, the more we end with the destruction of self; heart, mind, soul, and body. I hear about things that are being taught in schools today and it shocks me. Education has been steadily dumbed down over the last 30 years (children know how to use a contraceptive, but not their own mind), and the Church has not been immune to this societal trend.
This all means that we need to do what is necessary to grow in our knowledge of the faith (and absolutely stop trying to build up more self-esteem). It also means that parents need to work harder to teach their children so that they will not grow up and perpetuate the cycle of ignorance.. The things of God are strange to a pagan society, but they should not be strange to the baptized. Even many Catholics today avoid increasing their knowledge of God, and few are willing to spend any time reading the Holy Scriptures. As St. Jerome said, "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ", and we are a very ignorant people.
Self seeking and self serving, we have become a miserable people who desperately want to find new ways to help us to forget our misery. Yes, we want to forget it (but never actually repent of what we have done to cause it). I have said this many times over: sin makes you stupid. The sin "of the devil" is usually referred to as pride, and pride is the basic issue when it comes to seeking self first. Only in humility will we be able to rise out of this pit that we have jumped into. When we seek self first, we end up miserable, and then try not to think about anything that would take away our idol of self. When we seek Christ first, we find true joy, and then we can give greater consideration to the things of God (which in turn grants us even more grace to move forward with). Let us all reject the idol of self; and turn instead to the Almighty Lord.
